


win my heart

by Faye_Reynolds



Series: tumblr au prompts [18]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: F/M, M/M, festival!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 13:44:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13389048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faye_Reynolds/pseuds/Faye_Reynolds
Summary: frommy tumblr post





	win my heart

**Author's Note:**

> from [my tumblr post](http://thecompanyofheroes.co.vu/post/162934513813/winnix-festivalau-of-all-the-places-lewis)

of all the places lewis nixon expected to ruin his life, a local festival wasn’t it. nix had never counted on a lot of people in his life, but the one constant was his best friend, dick. when things got too hectic during his parents’ divorce or when he needed a place to sleep off a hangover or when he simply needed to be with dick, his best friend was always there. dick was the only person in nix’s life that was always there, no matter what. so after their high school graduation, when dick tells nix that he enlisted in the army, nix had no choice but to follow him, to be there for dick as much as he’d been there for nix. five years later, and nix is shot in the lung during a routine recon mission and his lung collapses. he’s shipped to the hospital, then straight home without so much as a goodbye to dick. and he’s angry. angry that he was shot, that he hadn’t been paying enough attention to his surroundings, and that he was back where he’d started. most of all, he’s mad that he’d left dick alone. furious that he’d failed, he couldn’t be there for dick like dick had been for him. still, he writes dicks nearly everyday and every couple of weeks he gets a letter back and nix is happy he can at least provide dick _something_ since he can’t be there with the man he loves. and that’s been it, hasn’t it? everything nix has ever done has been because of his love for his best friend. and he wants to tell the man in person, so he waits. waits for the letters, waits for dick’s tour to be over with, waits for the day he could see his best friend again. he gets his wish when harry and kitty drag him to the summer festival just outside of town. nothing prepares him who he sees, for what he does, and the consequences that follow.

* * *

 

nix had just finished a letter to dick, when harry text him. he sealed the white envelope and opened his phone.

_harry: heyyyyyyyyy nix. what’re you doing?_

_nix: nothing…why?_

_harry: oh i don’t know, but there’s a festival outside of town! do you want to go? please say yes._

nix thought for a long moment, he hadn’t been out in a while, choosing instead to lose himself in work and whiskey. he knew it was cliché but his heart was aching and work and whiskey helped soothe the ache. 

and, he hadn’t seen harry and kitty since they came back from their vacation and harry had proposed.

still, something about the way harry was texting that gave nix paused. 

_nix: what’re you planning?_

_harry: nothing, kitty and i are going and i know you’re too busy drowning your lovestruck sorrows. thought you could use a night out._

nix smiled, happy that one night he and harry had gotten too drunk and shared their troubles. 

* * *

too drunk and stumbling their way through nix’s apartment, the two men fell to the ground laughing.

that night, harry had told him that he thought kitty was out of his league and that he loved her too much and that he was scared that she’d say no when he proposed. 

dick, nix, and harry had been friends since sixth grade. harry nearly followed nix and dick into battle, but he’d met kitty and he wasn’t willing to risk losing her for anything. he’d made sure to write them both while they were away though, and they were a highlight for the dark nights the two had spent on the other side of the world. he was family.

so after nix reassured harry that kitty loved him just as much as he loved her, nix told harry his biggest secret. after six attempts, he finally told harry that he was in love with his best friend.

harry laughed loudly like he knew something nix didn’t before looking at nix accusingly.

“wait!” he slurred. “i thought i was your best friend.”

the two burst into laughter and that was that.

* * *

harry had never said another word about until nix got a particularly frightening letter telling him that dick wouldn’t be out of contact for a whole month.

nix had finished three glasses of whiskey before he answered harry’s question of what the letter had said.

the first words out of harry’s mouth were, “he’s gonna be fine, nix. he always is. he’s gonna come home.”

nix sighed shakily and cried in harry’s arms.

* * *

nix sighed, he owed so much to harry. he could put on a smile and pretend to enjoy himself for a couple of hours. he text harry back.

_nix: alright, pick me up at six?_

_harry: awesome! kitty and i are so excited._

_nix: you two need to get out more. it’s just a festival._

_harry: we’ll see about that._

nix was about to respond and ask what harry meant, but mrs. alcorn had just brought her saint bernard in. it was going to be a long day.

before he knew it, he was changed and waiting for harry. 

the man in question burst through the door, out of breath.

nix was about to speak when harry yelled at him, “what the hell are you doing here?”

nix laughed, “i work here harry.”

harry gestured wildly with his arms, “yeah but you’re not supposed to be here today, you’re supposed to be home.”

“and?”

harry stated again, with a stern tone, “you are supposed to be  _home_.”

“and we’ve established that i’m not at home. now are we going to argue this all night or are we going to eat our body weight in cotton candy and win every stuffed animal possible for kitty?”

harry laughed, but nix could tell he was still nervous about something. before he could ask harry, kitty walked through the door.

“hello lewis, oh you look perfect!”

nix looked down at his black t-shirt and jeans and his beat up black boots.

“i guess?” he shrugged.

“well boys, we really should be going.”

the three of them climbed into kitty’s jeep. nix put on his sunglasses and kicked his feet up on the edge of the jeep, feeling the sun on his skin and the wind in his hair. he wondered what dick was up to about now. if he was safe. and if he was thinking of nix as much as nix was thinking about him.

* * *

the festival was in full swing when the three of them got there. after they got in kitty immediately dragged nix to the nearest popcorn stand.

nix smiled and laughed as she immediately shove a handful of kettle corn into her mouth.

“you have a bigger sweet tooth than dick. that man could find sugar in a mile radius, i swear.”

nix’s laugh sounded hollow until kitty joined him.

“did i ever tell you the time he stole a giant jar of jellybeans from mr. richmond’s store because of finals?”

nix started laughing, he didn’t need to hear it, he’s the one who had dared dick to do it. knowing mr. richardson wouldn’t think twice. he told kitty as much.

“lewis nixon! you are a bad influence!”

he shrugged, smiling bright at kitty’s laughter. nix looked for harry, knowing he loved talking about their good old day and saw him speaking animatedly into his phone.

“oh my god, look at that giant stuffed shark! you have to win that for web, lew! his birthday is tomorrow.”

lewis hadn’t forgotten, in fact he had ten separate text messages reminding him. 

kitty was pulling him towards the game and when he saw what it was he face went pale.

it was one of those shooting game where you had to shoot the targets before the clock ran out. 

kitty looked worried, “shit, i’m sorry nix. i didn’t think, we can ju-”

nix smiled, “it’s okay kitty,” he turned to the bored teenager behind the stand, “what do i have to hit to get that shark?”

“you gotta shoot all the men down on the back board,” the kid gave nix a look, “think you can do that old man?”

nix scoffed, he was barely twenty-. 

“i can certainly try, though we did forget my glasses at the old folks home kitty.”

kitty laughed, smug in their shared secret from the worker.

nix loaded the small beads, noticing how weird the difference in weight from the ammunition he was used to, and placed the too-light rifle against his shoulder.

in less than five seconds all of the little men dropped and so did the kid’s jaw.

“that was amazing man.”

nix shrugged, “that’ll be one giant shark please.”

the kid took it down and kitty wrapped her short arms around it and hugged it to her.

nix was staring at the rifle still in his hands when a voice called out behind him, effectively turning his world upside down and stopping his heart in one sentence.

“it’s been a long time since i saw you with a rifle in your arms.”

lewis looked to kitty who looked like she was about to explode from excitement.

he slowly turned around and saw dick standing there, smiling and anxious and  _alive._

nix let out a harsh breath, trying to regain his composure. 

then dick opened his mouth again, “it’s…it’s good to see you nix.”

at the sound of his name leaving his best friend’s lips again broke the wall that nix carefully cultivated over the many, many years he’s been in love.

blind with pure joy and happiness, nix ran to dick and kissed him square on his mouth.

his lips were pressed against his best friend’s for a long moment before he pulled away like he’d been burned.

he saw dick’s shocked expression and knew that he’d officially ruined their friendship and essentially ruined his entire life. because he didn’t know who he was without dick. couldn’t remember and didn’t want to remember a life without him.

“dick,” nix’s heart raced and his breathing shortened, “i-i-i’m sorry.”

and then he ran. 

he ran like he did in basic, hard and fast and without an end in sight. 

he ran until his lungs and legs couldn’t take it anymore. 

when he finally stopped, somewhere in the woods outside the festival, he crashed against a tree and fought off the tears that wanted to fall so desperately.

* * *

kitty watched the kiss, happy that two of her boys were finally getting together. then she saw dick’s absolute shock and nix’s withdrawal into himself and then run away.

then she saw dick’s hands shakily touch his lips and his expression shift from happiness to confusion to exasperation to fondness.

dick walked up to her and kissed her cheek, “hi kitty. congratulations. bye kitty.”

then she saw dick run after the man he loved since high school. she loved that harry could never keep a secret.

dick ran toward nix until the man took a sharp right into a crowd and he lost him.

“think dick, think.” he said to himself, trying to think of where nix would go to hide. he looked towards the woods just behind the ferris wheel and ran as fast asa he could.

* * *

nix wasn’t panicking so much as completely losing it. he didn’t know what made him think kissing dick then and there, but he…he wouldn’t take it back. even if dick never talked to him again, nix just couldn’t find it in himself to take it back.

maybe he could play it off as a joke. no that would only work if he were still standing there, not running away from everything that had scared him since he was sixteen. he was always running away from this and now that the cat was out of the proverbial bag, he felt an enormous weight lift off him. he felt like he could breathe again.

“there’s you are nix.”

and then he couldn’t breathe again because dick was laughing and sitting next to him, close as can be and nix’s skin felt electrified. 

the two sat in silence for several minutes before dick spoke.

“lew,  _please,_ look at me.”

nix shook his head. he tried to will his body to move, to run again, but he couldn’t. 

“fine, then at least listen.”

nix nodded, still looking at his hands.

“do you remember when we borrowed my dad’s car and went to the beach?”

nix nodded again.

“that day was perfect for me, nix. it was just you and me, the warm sand, bottomless ocean, and the radio playing our favorite songs. that day has gotten me through so many dark nights, lew.”

nix looked at dick out of the corner of his eye saw dick was staring at him, intensely.

he nodded for lack of something better to do because he thought about that day a lot too.

“there was a moment when you were talking about getting you vet’s license and just helping animals because people were self-serving and dogs never deserved anything bad that happened to them. then you said that you could imagine us having a lot of dogs. at the time i took it to mean, that we would each have dogs, but you meant  _us_ , together.”

nix let the tears finally falls, noticing through blurred eyes that dick looked worried.

but he continued, “and after you said that you looked at me and the sun was starting to set and it hit you…and you were glowing like a beacon of something i’d always needed but wasn’t aware of until that moment. i…,” dick gently pulled nix’s slightly wet face up until he was looking at dick, waiting for the words where dick would tell him they couldn’t see each other anymore.

dick smiled as he wiped the tears from nix’s cheeks.

“i fell in love with you that day, lewis nixon.”

nix’s breath stopped, shocked and a little upset that dick was saying it first.

“maybe even before that, but in that moment, i knew.,” dick laughed softly, slightly in shock that he was finally able to say this words, “and ever since then i’ve been trying to tell you exactly how i felt. and i do…really love you nix.”

nix looked into dick’s eyes and found nothing but truth and love.

he surged forward and kissed dick with everything he hasn’t gotten to say yet and the two of them fell to the ground.

when they eventually parted, love crazed and a little hot under the collar, nix smiled the widest and happiest smile to ever grace his lips.

“i love you too, dick. so fucking much.”

dick kissed nix again, soft and sweet.

nix sighed, “i don’t think i’ll ever get enough of that.”

they smiled at one another when they heard leaves crunching beside them.

“i’m gonna have to ask you two to stop, we’ve been gettin’ reports of an eskimo and a drunk making out in the woods.”

they looked up and laughed when they saw who it was.

george luz, voted class clown of their graduating class, dressed in full uniform.

nix laughed, “shut up luz. i was just giving our nation’s hero a proper welcome home.”

luz scoffed and pulled his phone out to take a picture of them and then his fingers were flying across the screen.

nix was about to ask what he was doing, when toye came up behind luz, mumbling about damn kids, “oh you found them.”

dick smiled when he noticed toye’s hand.

“hey toye, are those brass knuckles regulation?”

toye laughed, “hell no, but they add a personal touch, don’t you think?”

dick laughed and nix couldn’t take his eyes off of him.

“yeah they do.”

luz clapped his hands after putting his phone back in his pocket.

“let’s go enjoy the festivities, huh?”

the four of them left the woods and dick’s hand found nix’s in an instant.

nix squeezed his hand tightly before lacing their fingers together.

nix had never felt more at home than with dick’s hand entwined with his own.


End file.
